Royal Mail Post Slots

[thelewisgang]

I am becoming more & more frustrated at my local post office regarding the slot system they use for sending letters/large letters. I know the letter rate thickness is up to & including 0.5cm & I have one of their measurement rulers for checking this before I go to the post office.
Today, I had an A5 envelope containing 5 sheets of A4 paper folded in half. I checked this before leaving home & it glided through the "letter" slot quite easily but when I got to the post office I was charged a "large letter" rate. When I queried this, I was told it had to "fall through" the slot without any resistance whatsoever & in the clerk's view, it did not.
Where I used to live, the post office had completely different views & even with a slight push through the slot(s) it would go as either letter or large letter rate depending on envelope size. I send a lot of mail & nobody has ever been charged an excess in this situation.
I do sometimes print my own postage online but I needed this letter to be sent recorded delivery hence a trip to the post office.

[Cloverjo]

Whenever I've had letters checked for size, if it went through the slot it was fine. No mention of falling through or needing to be pushed.

[EDDIE51]

I am certain that post clerks are instructed to try to get the highest price they can out of you. I recently got a large job lot of plastic taps that I sold on eBay (350 of them!) I measured them and a tap in an envelope was just able to be classed as a large letter so 75p or 93p postage. But if I handed them over the counter the clerk said they were a small packet at £2.80.
I just bought a stock of large letter stamps and used them to post by just putting the tap in an envelope and dropping them in the letter box with a stamp on. They all got to the buyers with no problem , over 300 times!

[roopower]

I've had problems too. My postmaster has checked items I'm not sure of and said they're fine and then the recipient is charged at their end. I think it's all rather dodgy and needs tightening up.

[malana3]

I have also had the experience of asking the Post Office clerk to approve a thickish birthday card and had her agreement that it could be sent at normal charge only to be told by my sister in law that the post office at her end didn't agree and surcharged her. Surely it would be simple for the clerk to attache a "Post Office Agreed" sticker to the letter and it not be subject to any further scrutiny

[thelewisgang]

That is a good idea about a sticker on the envelope. Their system definitely needs to be reviewed as it varies depending on the post office used. As I said in my OP, the local post office I now use are, I know, charging me more & I am not happy